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DeMar DeRozan protects the ball from the reaching Paul Pierce during Game 2 on Tuesday. DeRozan hit two crucial late shots for his team; Pierce missed a late three-point attempt. (Steve Russell / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

When they say Paul Pierce usually makes that shot, they aren’t kidding.

When Pierce swept his feet behind the three-point line and launched a three-pointer from the left side with 24 seconds left in Game 2, it was a good look. Pierce took 16 three-pointers from that general area this season and made 10 of them, and that’s before you factor in that he’s been burying opponents since the world was young.

The shot would have given the Brooklyn Nets a one-point lead, and would have felt like a hammer; it rimmed out. Great look, though.

Pierce made those shots in Game 1, and that’s why Toronto really needed DeMar DeRozan to make big shots to win Game 2. The Nets sensibly trapped point guard Kyle Lowry and forced the 24-year-old DeRozan to beat them, which is more or less a straight percentage play, really. Smart.

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And DeRozan beat them. He scored 17 of Toronto’s 36 fourth-quarter points, and the two jumpers he hit with just over two minutes left gave the Raptors a lead they never relinquished. They were both mid-range jumpers, and the second one was not technically a good look. Pull-up jumper, off the dribble from about 18 feet away, middle of the court, leaning to his right, fading back — that’s hard.

DeRozan, in fact, shot 39.2 per cent from that area this season, which is about the league average. He shot 41.5 per cent from the right wing, where he hit the shot before that one. If you ran those three shots through the odds, Toronto probably doesn’t win as often as it loses.

But they won because DeRozan takes tough shots, and he makes tough shots. He grew up in L.A. watching Kobe Bryant, and some of those daredevil attempts look familiar. There’s only one Kobe Bryant, though.

“Those shots he takes, I think they’re good shots for him,” says Raptors head coach Dwane Casey. “You’re probably not going to be able to get to the rim every time against this team because they do a great job of packing the paint. What we’ve got to do, and DeMar did it, is take in-between shots, some mid-range shots, basically the shots the defence is giving you, and not try to force it past that.

“He’s grown, he’s still not a finished product. We’re just seeing the beginning of a guy becoming a star.”

Mid-range shots are vanishing from the NBA among the smart teams, because they’re lousy percentage plays. Corner and sideline threes, like the one Pierce took? Those are the best bets outside of five feet. DeRozan has worked nights and weekends, taking the harder, lower-percentage road. It’s a little like learning to putt on one foot, leaning backwards, one-handed.

“In the summertime, before games, I always practice unconventional shots,” said DeRozan, who finished with 30 in Game 2. “Fadeaways, leaning, pump-fakes — that’s my serious shot. When I shoot I don’t just shoot jump shots. I always shoot different styles. Just (for) the rhythm.

“You never know the type of shot you’re going to need to shoot at a certain time. So when I’m in a certain position, any shot I feel like I’m going to take, I’m going to feel comfortable with.

“If I feel like I can get the shot off, I feel like it’s got a good chance to go in.”

Confidence is terrific but clean looks are better, and around the NBA smart people keep expecting DeRozan to stop converting. But they didn’t expect him to roundly improve after four years of flat per-minute production, either. The Raptors’ season wasn’t quite in the balance in that fourth quarter, but it was close. And DeRozan saved it.

“DeMar is just unbelievable, how he makes shots ... Unreal,” said Raptors guard Greivis Vasquez. “I mean, tough shots. He’s got that talent to make those tough shots. And in these games it’s huge, because at any given point he can be making one of those tough shots and you can be saying ‘that’s not going in’ — well, guess what? If he’s taking it, it’s going in.”

Again, that’s a little aspirational. As Nets coach Jason Kidd said after Game 2, this series seems likely to come down to a possession here or there. In the playoffs, there comes a time when everything feels freighted with importance, and everything you’ve ever done needs to summon what you do now. Someone’s got to make a play.

So who do you want to bet on? Brooklyn’s Joe Johnson, whose record of clutch shots is a smaller version of Pierce’s? Pierce, 36-year-old legs and all? Or DeMar DeRozan, after Lowry’s been forced to give the ball up, taking what the defence gives him, elevating with those young legs, shooting with those arms that lifted weights before the game, so the ball won’t ever feel heavy?

This series feels like it could come down to that, and for Toronto, that means continuing to live dangerously. DeMar DeRozan has been trying to perfect beating the casino for five years.

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